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NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo:What is the worst game to get stuck playing?

May 14, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Today’s topic is: What is the worst game to get stuck playing?

I have said it once and I will say it again. Monopoly.

Yep that is right, the iconic board games has got to be the worst game in the world to get stuck playing.

I once turned down a date with the prettiest girl in school when we were making plans for our first date and she suggested:

“Come on over to my place and we can play Monopoly!”

Hoping she wasn’t suggesting ‘something else’ or somehow there wasn’t a double entendre there but I declined none-the-less.

Monpoly has got to be the most agonizing form of entertainment known to man. Does it ever end? No!

At least back in Lincoln’s day, he passed the time reading books.

Monoply has a good premise. You go around the board and collect your loot while buying up properties and charging your pals rent. Sounds like really life, doesn’t it? No.

Who cares how much wealth you accumulate when it is just funny money.

Hey wait a minute. Isn’t that what got us in the mess in this country? Didn’t it all start with P-BO’s Cash for Clunkers program?

Funny money or not, its 2012 for goodness sake. Who cares who owns a railroad and when can a couple hundred bucks get you out of jail?

I guess if you want you can take a Chance but I’m betting there is more in that Community Chest than a game of monolpy that will take years off of your life, literally. I mean, when has a game ever ended in under sixteen hours.

Who has that kind of time? I would rather spend it on Facebook.

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort.


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Filed Under: Daily Post, NaBloPoMo Tagged With: alaska, Board game, facebook, Games, Huntington West Virginia, Monopoly, NaBloPoMo, Video Games

NaBloPoMo: What sport do you wish you could try?

May 11, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Today’s topic is: What sport do you wish you could try?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I played A LOT of sports as a kid. I loved just about anything that required you to keep score. It could be anything from a game of wiffle ball in the backyard to an all-nighter game-fest of trivial pursuit or god forbid monopoly.

I really wanted to play baseball.

In fact in the second grade I signed up to play in the Onslow County Little League and was picked for a team. We were the orange team. All the teams in the league were named a color and our uniforms were simple. Just the color and a white number on the back. That’s it. How original right?

Anyhow, it was early June and we had only been practicing for a week or so and I was sitting in the little bleachers down the first base line. I was minding my own business with WAY too much Big League Chew in my mouth and suddenly one of these up and coming sluggers hit a foul ball. Everybody screamed HEAAAAAAAADDDDDDDSSS!!

I was in my own little world. Not paying attention to much of anything except a moth that was fluttering by. I quickly understood why nobody likes moths—They are the zombies of the butterfly world.

Anyhow, this errant foul ball hit me smack dab on top of the head and sent my flat bill orange cap flying. It was still flat-billed because I wasn’t quite cool enough to fix it right.

I was laid out right then and there and dang near choked to death on my wad of chew. I saw stars and blacked out a second or two.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground with my feet up, a cool washcloth on my head and a group of snot-nosed 8-year olds surrounding me asking me if I was okay.

I was sent home with a note pinned to my back so I couldn’t take it off written to my mom. It said, in short:

Robby can’t play ball anymore.

He got hit in the head.

Signed, The Coach…

That was it. No ambulances. No trips to the hospital. No suits filed by my old man because SOMEBODY wasn’t ‘watching’ me. It was cut and dry. I took a walloped to the noggin and sent home. I even walked. It was just across the street, but still.

I guess I could have played ball after I recovered but I didn’t. Why? Because by mid-June we moved away from our little house on Collis Avenue to North Carolina to live with my step-dad Mike.

I doubt I would have been any good at baseball anyway. It is too much standing around. I was a football player. I wanted to hit somebody!

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort. 

Related articles
  • NaBloPoMo: How did you feel as a child when you lost a game? (robertforto.wordpress.com)
  • NaBloPoMo: Strong memory about recess (robertforto.wordpress.com)
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Filed Under: Daily Post, NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo: Did you have a favorite sports player as a child?

May 10, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Today’s topic: Did you have a favorite sports player as a child?

Growing up I was a big football fan. I watched from my play pen. I loved Howard and Dandy Don. My mom even let me stay up late. I usually made it til at least halftime before retiring to my room.

I didn’t really have a favorite sports player. I loved watching them all. I especially liked watching the Steelers in the 1970s with Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Mean Joe Green and Franco Harris. The 49ers in the 80s with Joe Montana, Roger Craig and Jerry Rice. The Cowboys with Danny White then Troy Aikman, Randy White, Emmitt Smith, Ed Too Tall Jones in the 90s… Wait a sec. The 1990s? I was a full-grown adult by then.

But the team I really loved to watch was the Washington Redskins of the 1980s. We lived in the Washington-area suburbs back then and we headed to the old R.F.K. to catch a game a couple times a year. I loved The Hogs, John Riggins, Mark Mosely, Art Monk, Darrell Green and Joe Theismann. I will never forget that Monday Night game in 1985 when Lawrence Taylor took out Joe Theismann’s leg and his career. You could hear his leg snap on T.V.!

I still love football but it is a different game today. Too much talk about bounties, spy-gate, concussions, salary caps, player arrests and suicides.

It will be interesting to see where the game is in 20 years and I can not help but wonder if it will even be the game we recognize today.

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort. 

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Filed Under: Daily Post, NaBloPoMo Tagged With: Art Monk, Jerry Rice, Joe Theismann, John Riggins, Lynn Swann, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, Washington Redskins

NaBloPoMo: What do you do to celebrate a win?

May 9, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Today’s topic is: What do you do to celebrate a win?

For the past seven years or so we have played Forto’s Fantasy Football.

In early August we gear up for the draft and peruse over a multitude of stats books and prowl the Internet looking for players to fill our rosters.

Talk about competition! On any given year anyone in my family has a chance to win. For the last several years, my daughter, Nicole has held strong with her dad giving me a run for my money down the stretch.

After each season we award the winning team with the coveted Forto’s Fantasy Football trophy with an engraved plaque with the winner’s name.

The winner gets to keep the trophy for the year until it is claimed by the winner the following season.

The winner is also treated to a dinner, paid for by the losing teams, at a place of his, or her, choosing.

Even though I have won for the last three years in a row I still look forward to playing each year. Last year my son Tyler and I were in Alaska and my wife Michele, and Nicole were in Colorado. We conducted our draft over Skype. It was a blast!

I believe this little tradition is one of the things that keeps our family strong and teaching my kids what competition is all about. Sure it is fantasy football, but the camaraderie and passion each of us has is a good way to stick together.

What do you do to celebrate a win?

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort. 

Related articles
  • NaBloPoMo: How did you feel as a child when you lost a game? (robertforto.wordpress.com)
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Filed Under: Daily Post, NaBloPoMo Tagged With: alaska, Colorado, dailypost, Fantasy football (American), forto, NaBloPoMo, robert forto, skype, Sports

NaBloPoMo: How did you feel as a child when you lost a game?

May 8, 2012 by robertforto 2 Comments

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Today’s topic is: How did you feel as a child when you lost a game?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the Forto/Gibson household there were no points for second place. It was sudden death overtime every day and night, seven days a week, 365. No questions asked. Period.

This competitive edge has helped and haunted me for the last 41 years.

One story to share was dinnertime at the family abode.

My stepdad, Mike, being a U.S. Marine was disciplined. Very disciplined. You have to be to be a part of the nations elite military service. We had weekly inspections every Saturday for our bedrooms. I’m not talking bounce-a-quarter off of the bed sheets, but our rooms had to be in order and things picked up off the floor OR we weren’t allowed to go outside to play. Simple as that.

Back to the story… Mike used to watch the Evening News with Peter Jennings every night on ABC before dinner. My mom, would be slaving away in the kitchen making up the nightly casserole (or whatever) and us boys were itching to eat. We were growing ya know!

Inevitably, every night my brother, Ryan and I, would be sitting at the table a few minutes before 6:30. You could set your watch by it. Thank god daylight savings time didn’t occur at 6:30 in the evening because we were starving!

At 6:30 you would here Peter say, “For everyone at ABC News, I am Peter Jennings. Good Night.”

That was it. It was like Pavlov’s bell. We were salivating! All that food laid out so neatly on the round table in the corner. Every night it was a main course, a side or two, bread and a glass of coke. No milk. Gross.

As Mike would sit down to eat in his chair with the arms. The only chair with arms. He would say just three words. “Dig in, boys!”

That was our cue. It was time to enjoy the fixin’s laid out before us. My mom was still over in the kitchen doing one thing or another as the three of us ate like savages. We consumed our daily food pyramid of viddles quicker that mom could serve it up. I don’t recall her siting down for a hot meal for 15 years.

It became a competition. Whoever came in second would have to do the dishes. I was not having that. Ever.

On nights that I did lose. Usually nights with brussels spouts I was resigned to K.P. duty. That usually meant just loading up the dishwasher. Never pre-washing. Why? It was a dishwasher.

By 6:35-6:40 it would be all over. The ceremony of the family dinner was complete. Even though it was quick and relatively painless, we all made it a point to eat together. That is something that most families don’t do today.

By 7:00 we were back outside playing catch in the back yard or our favorite, wiffle ball with a huge red bat that Mike called “Big Bertha”.

During those evenings outside Mike would talk to us about the importance of doing your best and setting yourself up for success.

I will never forget those nights with my family. I just know I did my best not to lose at dinner because I hated doing the dishes.

And still do today. 

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort. 

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Filed Under: Daily Post, NaBloPoMo Tagged With: ABC, American Broadcasting Company, Big Bertha, dailypost, Evening News, family values, jacksonville north carolina, Peter Jennings, robert forto, Top, U.S. Marine, USMC, Wiffle ball

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